Thus far, it’s just been assembly of stock Spearfish 1 parts, with Chad showing attention to detail that makes me feel just a little better about my own anal-retentiveness. Every part that was assembled was lubed first. Every cable was lubed, every housing was trimmed and trued, every part was tuned.

And don’t get me wrong…there’s nothing wrong with a stock Spearfish 1 build…

There’s the 2012 Avid Elixir 7 Carbon brakes…

I had a set of AVID XOs from last year that I was saving to put on the Spearfish, but they were pressed into service on the Mukluk once I decided that the new Elixir 7s were in fact nicer than the old XOs.

X9 Shifters

X9 Crank (hey, is that a KMC X10SL DLC chain, in matching red and black?

XO Rear Derailleur

X7 up front.

This one’s going to have my much loved Ergon grips, the new Ergon carbon saddle, a set of North Central Cyclery hand built ENVE 29xc wheels, with DT Aerolite bladed spokes and DT 240 hubs, and a set of Maxxis IKON EXOs, tubeless, with Stan’s sealant.

My hopes and dreams of building up with XX1 have gone unrealized, as apparently no one from SRAM reads my blog. So in the absence of 1×11, given that we’re starting with 2×10, I decided to give that a shot first, and then determine if going 1×10 makes sense.